Graphics display resolution

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The graphics display resolution is the width and height dimensions of an electronic visual display device, such as a computer monitor, in pixels. Certain combinations of width and height are standardized and typically given a name and an initialism that is descriptive of its dimensions. A higher display resolution in a display of the same size means that displayed content appears sharper.

The favored aspect ratio of mass market display industry products has changed gradually from 4:3, then to 16:10, and then to 16:9, and now 21:9. This has made many of the display resolutions listed in this article difficult to obtain in mass market products. The 4:3 aspect ratio generally reflects older products, especially the era of the cathode ray tube (CRT). The 16:10 aspect ratio had its largest use in the 1995–2010 period, and the 16:9 aspect ratio tends to reflect post-2010 mass market computer monitor, laptop, and entertainment products displays. In many cases the resolutions listed in the sections below may have a small market, may only be seen in specialized industrial or computer market products, or may not be available for sale.

The 4:3 aspect ratio was common in older television cathode ray tube (CRT) displays, which were not easily adaptable to a wider aspect ratio. When good quality alternate technologies (i.e., liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and plasma displays) became more available and less costly, around the year 2000, the common computer displays and entertainment products moved to a wider aspect ratio, first to the 16:10 ratio. The 16:10 ratio allowed some compromise between showing older 4:3 aspect ratio broadcast TV shows, but also allowing better viewing of widescreen movies. However, around the year 2005, entertainment industry displays (i.e., TV sets) gradually moved from 16:10 to the 16:9 aspect ratio, for further improvement of viewing widescreen movies. By about 2007, virtually all mass market entertainment displays were 16:9. In 2011, 1920×1080 (Full HD, the native resolution of Blu-ray) was the favored resolution in the most heavily marketed entertainment market displays. The next standard, 3840×2160 (4K UHD) emerged on the market in 2013.

Also in 2013, displays with 2560×1080 (aspect ratio 64:27 or 2.370, however commonly referred to as "21:9" for easy comparison with 16:9) appeared, which closely approximate the common CinemaScope movie standard aspect ratio of 2.35–2.40. In 2014, "21:9" screens with pixel dimensions of 3440×1440 (actual aspect ratio 43:18 or 2.38) became available as well.

The computer display industry maintained the 16:10 aspect ratio longer than the entertainment industry, but in the 2005–2010 period, computers were increasingly marketed as dual use products, with uses in the traditional computer applications, but also as means of viewing entertainment content. In this time frame, with the notable exception of Apple, almost all desktop, laptop, and display manufacturers gradually moved to promoting only 16:9 aspect ratio displays. By 2011, the 16:10 aspect ratio had virtually disappeared from the Windows laptop display market (although Macintosh laptops are still mostly 16:10, including the 2880×1800 Retina MacBook Pro). One consequence of this transition was that the highest available resolutions moved generally downward (i.e., the move from 1920×1200 laptop displays to 1920×1080 displays).

nHD is a display resolution of 640×360 pixels, which is exactly one ninth of a Full HD (1080p) frame and one quarter of a HD (720p) frame. Pixel doubling (vertically and horizontally) nHD frames will form one 720p frame and pixel tripling nHD frames will form one 1080p frame.

One drawback of this resolution is that the vertical resolution is not an even multiple of 16, which is a common macroblock size for video codecs. Video frames encoded with 16×16 pixel macroblocks would be padded to 640×368 and the added pixels would be cropped away at playback. H.264 codecs have this padding and cropping ability built-in as standard. The same is true for qHD and 1080p but the relative amount of padding is more for lower resolutions such as nHD.

To avoid storing the eight lines of padded pixels, some people prefer to encode video at 624×352, which only has one stored padded line. When such video streams are either encoded from HD frames or played back on HD displays in full screen mode (either 720p or 1080p) they are scaled by non-integer scale factors. True nHD frames on the other hand has integer scale factors, for example Nokia 808 PureView with nHD display.

The HD resolution of 1280×720 pixels stems from high-definition television (HDTV), where it originally used 60 frames per second. With its 16:9 aspect ratio it is exactly 2 times the width and 1½ times the height of 4:3 VGA, which shares its aspect ratio and 480 line count with NTSC. HD therefore has exactly 3 times as many pixels as VGA.

This resolution is sometimes referred to as 720p, although the p (which stands for progressive scan and is important for transmission formats) is irrelevant for labeling digital display resolutions.

In the mid 2000s, when the digital HD technology and standard debut the market, this type of resolution was very often and commonly referred to (both by the public and by the marketers) by its friendlier branded and certified name HD ready.[citation needed]

Few screens have been built that actually use this resolution natively, most employ 16:9 panels with 768 lines instead (WXGA), which resulted in odd numbers of pixels per line, i.e. 1365⅓ are rounded to 1360, 1364, 1366 or even 1376, the next multiple of 16.

The FHD or Full HD resolution of 1920×1080 pixels in a 16:9 aspect ratio was developed as an HDTV transmission and storage format. Using interlacing, the bandwidth requirements are very similar to those of 720p – their pixel counts are roughly in a 2:1 ratio, 9:4 exactly. FHD is 3 times the width and 21⁄4 times the height of 4:3 VGA.

Due to its origins, this resolution is sometimes referred to as 1080i wherein the i stands for "interlaced". Since there are also progressive signals with the same frame rate (but half the effective field rate) those signals are more commonly called 1080p.

Since most video codecs use 16×16 or 32×32 pixel macro blocks there is often an excess 8 lines encoded, because 16×68 = 32×34 = 1088.

DCI 2K, also referred to as Cinema 2K,[citation needed] was established by the Digital Cinema Initiatives consortium in 2005 and defines a resolution of 2048×1080 (2.2 megapixels) with an aspect ratio of ~19:10 for 2K film projection.[1] This is the native resolution for DCI-compliant 2K digital projectors and displays.

QHD (Quad HD), WQHD (Wide Quad HD),[2] or 1440p,[3] is a display resolution of 2560×1440 pixels in a 16:9 aspect ratio. The name QHD reflects the fact that it has four times as many pixels as HD (720p). It is also commonly called WQHD, to emphasize it being a wide resolution, although that is technically unnecessary, since the HD resolutions are all wide. One advantage of using "WQHD" is avoiding confusion with qHD with a small q (960×540).

This resolution was under consideration by the ATSC in the late 1980s to become the standard HDTV format, because it is exactly 4 times the width and 3 times the height of VGA, which has the same number of lines as NTSC signals at the SDTV 4:3 aspect ratio. Pragmatic technical constraints made them choose the now well-known 16:9 formats with twice (HD) and thrice (FHD) the VGA width instead.

The resolution is also used in portable devices. In autumn 2012 Samsung announced the Series 9 WQHD laptop with a 13 inch 2560×1440 display.[6] In August 2013 LG announced a 5.5 inch QHD smartphone display, which is used in the LG G3.[7] In October 2013 Vivo announced a smartphone with a 2560×1440 display.[8]Other phone manufacturers followed in 2014, such as Samsung with the Galaxy Note 4[9] and Google[10] and Motorola[11] with the Nexus 6[12] smartphone. By 2015, it was a common resolution amongst flagship phones such as the HTC 10, the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge,[13] the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge, the Google Pixel XL and the LG G4.

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UWQHD (Ultra-Wide Quad HD) is a display resolution of 3440×1440 pixels in a 43:18 aspect ratio (2.38:1, or 21.5:9). The first monitor to support this resolution was the LG 34UM95-P.[14] LG uses the term "UW-QHD" to describe this resolution. This monitor was first released in Germany in late December 2013, before being officially announced at CES 2014.

WQXGA+ (Wide Quad Extended Graphics Array Plus), also referred to as QHD[15] and QHD+,[16] is a resolution of 3200×1800 in a 16:9 aspect ratio. It has four times as many pixels as the 1600×900 HD+ resolution.

4K UHD (Ultra HD), also referred to as UHDTV-1 or 4K × 2K, is a display resolution of 3840×2160 pixels (four times as many pixels as FHD) in the same 16:9 aspect ratio.[19][20] This resolution is defined in the UHDTV standard as "4K UHD", but prior to the publication of the standard it was sometimes casually referred to as "QFHD" (Quad Full HD).[21][22]

Displays capable of this resolution include an 82 inch LCD TV revealed by Samsung in early 2008,[23] the Sony SRM-L560, a 56 inch LCD reference monitor announced in October 2009,[22] an 84 inch display demonstrated by LG in mid-2010,[24] and a 27.84 inch 158 PPI 4K IPS monitor for medical purposes launched by Innolux in November 2010.[25] In October 2011 Toshiba announced the REGZA 55x3,[26] which is claimed to be the first 4K glasses-free 3D TV.

DisplayPort supports 4K UHD at 30 Hz in version 1.1, and added support for 75 Hz in version 1.2 (2009) and 120 Hz in version 1.3 (2014),[27] while HDMI added support for 4K UHD at 30 Hz in version 1.4 (2009)[28] and 60 Hz in version 2.0 (2013).[29]

When support for 4K at 60 Hz was added in DisplayPort 1.2, no DisplayPort timing controllers (TCONs) existed which were capable of processing the necessary amount of data from a single video stream. As a result, the first 4K monitors from 2013 and early 2014, such as the SHARP PN-K321, ASUS PQ321Q, and Dell UP2414Q and UP3214Q, were addressed internally as two 1920×2160 monitors side-by-side instead of a single display and made use of DisplayPort's Multi-Stream Transport (MST) feature to multiplex a separate signal for each half over the connection, splitting the data between two timing controllers.[30][31] Newer timing controllers became available in 2014, and after mid-2014 new 4K monitors such as the Asus PB287Q no longer rely on MST tiling technique to achieve 4K at 60 Hz,[32] instead using the standard SST (Single-Stream Transport) approach.[33]

DCI 4K, also referred to as Cinema 4K[35] or 4K x 2K, was established by the Digital Cinema Initiatives consortium in 2005 and defines a resolution of 4096×2160 (8.8 megapixels) with an aspect ratio of ~19:10 for 4K film projection.[1] This is the native resolution for DCI-compliant 4K digital projectors and displays.

HDMI added support for 4096×2160 at 30 Hz in version 1.4[28] and 60 Hz in version 2.0.[29][36]

5K is a display resolution of 5120×2880 with a 16:9 aspect ratio. Although it is not part of the UHDTV standard (or any other standard),[citation needed] some manufacturers such as Dell have referred to it as UHD+.[37] 5K is exactly double the pixel count of WQHD (2560×1440) in each direction, for a total of four times as many pixels. The line count of 2880 is also the least common multiple of 480 and 576, the scanline count of NTSC and PAL, respectively. Such a resolution can vertically scale SD content to fit by natural numbers (6 for NTSC and 5 for PAL). Horizontal scaling of SD is always fractional (non-anamorphotic: 5.33...5.47, anamorphotic: 7.11...7.29).

The first display with this resolution was the Dell UltraSharp UP2715K, announced on September 5, 2014.[38] On October 16, 2014, Apple announced the iMac with Retina 5K display.[39][40]

DisplayPort 1.3 added support for 5K at 60 Hz over a single cable, whereas DisplayPort 1.2 was only capable of 5K at 30 Hz. Early 5K 60 Hz displays such as the Dell UltraSharp UP2715K and HP DreamColor Z27q that lacked DisplayPort 1.3 support required two DisplayPort 1.2 connections to operate at 60 Hz, in a tiled display mode similar to early 4K displays using DP MST.[41]

8K UHD (Ultra HD), also referred to as UHDTV-2, is a display resolution of 7680×4320 pixels (four times as many pixels as 4K UHD, or sixteen times as many pixels as Full HD) in the same 16:9 aspect ratio.[21] This resolution is part of the UHDTV standard.

DisplayPort 1.3, finalized by VESA in late 2014, added support for this resolution at 30 Hz (or 60 Hz with YCbCr 4:2:0 subsampling). VESA's Display Stream Compression (DSC), which was part of early DisplayPort 1.3 drafts and would have enabled 8K at 60 Hz without subsampling, was cut from the specification prior to publication of the final draft.[42]

DSC support was reintroduced later on March 1, 2016 with the publication of DisplayPort 1.4. Using DSC, a "visually lossless" form of compression, resolutions of up to 7680×4320 (8K UHD) at 60 Hz with HDR and 30 bit/px color depth are possible without subsampling.[43]

Quarter-QVGA (QQVGA or qqVGA) denotes a resolution of 160×120 or 120×160 pixels, usually used in displays of handheld devices. The term Quarter-QVGA signifies a resolution of one fourth the number of pixels in a QVGA display (half the number of vertical and half the number of horizontal pixels) which itself has one fourth the number of pixels in a VGA display.

The abbreviation qqVGA may be used to distinguish quarter from quad, just like qVGA.[44]

The name comes from having a quarter of the 640×480 maximum resolution of the original IBMVGA display technology, which became a de facto industry standard in the late 1980s. QVGA is not a standard mode offered by the VGA BIOS, even though VGA and compatible chipsets support a QVGA-sized Mode X. The term refers only to the display's resolution and thus the abbreviated term QVGA or Quarter VGA is more appropriate to use.

QVGA resolution is also used in digital video recording equipment as a low-resolution mode requiring less data storage capacity than higher resolutions, typically in still digital cameras with video recording capability, and some mobile phones. Each frame is an image of 320×240 pixels. QVGA video is typically recorded at 15 or 30 frames per second. QVGA mode describes the size of an image in pixels, commonly called the resolution; numerous video file formats support this resolution.

While QVGA is a lower resolution than VGA, at higher resolutions the "Q" prefix commonly means quad(ruple) or four times higher display resolution (e.g., QXGA is four times higher resolution than XGA). To distinguish quarter from quad, lowercase "q" is sometimes used for "quarter" and uppercase "Q" for "quad", by analogy with SI prefixes like m/M and p/P, but this is not a consistent usage.[46]

Wide QVGA or WQVGA is any display resolution having the same height in pixels as QVGA, but wider. This definition is consistent with other 'wide' versions of computer displays.

Since QVGA is 320 pixels wide and 240 pixels high (aspect ratio of 4:3), the resolution of a WQVGA screen might be 360×240 (3:2 aspect ratio), 384×240 (16:10 aspect ratio), 400×240 (5:3 – such as the Nintendo 3DS screen or the maximum resolution in YouTube at 240p), 428×240 or 432×240 (~16:9 ratio). As with WVGA, exact ratios of n:9 are difficult because of the way VGA controllers internally deal with pixels. For instance, when using graphical combinatorial operations on pixels, VGA controllers will use 1 bit per pixel. Since bits cannot be accessed individually but by chunks of 16 or an even higher power of 2, this limits the horizontal resolution to a 16-pixel granularity, i.e., the horizontal resolution must be divisible by 16. In the case of 16:9 ratio, with 240 pixels high, the horizontal resolution should be 240 / 9 × 16 = 426.6, the closest multiple of 16 is 432.

WQVGA has also been used to describe displays that are not 240 pixels high, for example Sixteenth HD1080 displays which are 480 pixels wide and 270 or 272 pixels high. This may be due to WQVGA having the nearest screen height.

WQVGA resolutions are commonly used in touchscreen mobile phones, such as 400×240, 432×240, and 480×240. For example, the Sony Ericsson Aino and the Samsung Instinct both have WQVGA screen resolutions – 240×432. Other devices such as the Apple iPod Nano also use a WQVGA screen, 240×376 pixels.

HVGA (Half-size VGA) screens have 480×320 pixels (3:2 aspect ratio), 480×360 pixels (4:3 aspect ratio), 480×272 (~16:9 aspect ratio) or 640×240 pixels (8:3 aspect ratio). The former is used by a variety of PDA devices, starting with the Sony CLIÉPEG-NR70 in 2002, and standalone PDAs by Palm. The latter was used by a variety of handheld PC devices. VGA resolution is 640×480.

HVGA was the only resolution supported in the first versions of Google Android, up to release 1.5.[48] Other higher and lower resolutions became available starting on release 1.6, like the popular WVGA resolution on the Motorola Droid or the QVGA resolution on the HTC Tattoo.

Video Graphics Array (VGA) refers specifically to the display hardware first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987.[49] Through its widespread adoption, VGA has also come to mean either an analogcomputer display standard, the 15-pin D-subminiatureVGA connector or the 640×480 resolution itself. While the VGA resolution was superseded in the personal computer market in the 1990s, it became a popular resolution on mobile devices in the 2000s.[50] VGA is still the universal fallback troubleshooting mode in the case of trouble with graphic device drivers in operating systems. In the field of videos the resolution of 640×480 is called Standard Definition (SD) - in comparison for instance to HD (1280×720) or Full HD (1920×1080).

Wide VGA or WVGA, sometimes just WGA, an abbreviation for Wide Video Graphics Array is any display resolution with the same 480 pixel height as VGA but wider, such as 720×480 (3:2 aspect ratio), 800×480 (5:3), 848×480, 852×480, 853×480 or 854×480 (~16:9). It is a common resolution among LCD projectors and later portable and hand-held internet-enabled devices (such as MID and Netbooks) as it is capable of rendering web sites designed for an 800 wide window in full page-width. Examples of hand-held internet devices, without phone capability, with this resolution include: Spice stellar nhance mi-435, ASUS Eee PC 700 series, DellXCD35, Nokia770, N800, and N810.

FWVGA is an abbreviation for Full Wide Video Graphics Array which refers to a display resolution of 854×480 pixels. 854×480 is approximately the 16:9 aspect ratio of anamorphically "un-squeezed" NTSC DVD widescreen video and considered a "safe" resolution that does not crop any of the image. It is called Full WVGA to distinguish it from other, narrower WVGA resolutions which require cropping 16:9 aspect ratiohigh-definition video (i.e. it is full width, albeit with considerable reduction in size).

The 854 pixel width is rounded up from 853.3. 480 × 16⁄9 = 7680⁄9 = 8531⁄3. Since a pixel must be a whole number, rounding up to 854 ensures inclusion of the entire image.[51]

Super Video Graphics Array, abbreviated to Super VGA or SVGA, also known as Ultra Video Graphics Array,[52] abbreviated to Ultra VGA or UVGA, is a broad term that covers a wide range of computer display standards.[53]

Originally, it was an extension to the VGA standard first released by IBM in 1987. Unlike VGA – a purely IBM-defined standard – Super VGA was defined by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA), an open consortium set up to promote interoperability and define standards. When used as a resolution specification, in contrast to VGA or XGA for example, the term SVGA normally refers to a resolution of 800×600 pixels.

The marginally higher resolution 832×624 is the highest 4:3 resolution not greater than 219 pixels, with its horizontal dimension a multiple of 32 pixels. This enables it to fit within a framebuffer of 512 KB (512 × 210 bytes), and the common multiple of 32 pixels constraint is related to alignment. For these reasons this resolution was available on the Macintosh LC III and other systems.[citation needed]

The wide version of SVGA is known as WSVGA (Wide Super VGA), featured on Ultra-Mobile PCs, netbooks, and tablet computers. The resolution is either 1024×576 (aspect ratio 16:9) or 1024×600 (between 15:9 and 16:9) with screen sizes normally ranging from 7 to 10 inches. It has full XGA width of 1024 pixels.

XGA, the Extended Graphics Array, is an IBM display standard introduced in 1990. Later it became the most common appellation of the 1024×768 pixels display resolution, but the official definition is broader than that. It was not a new and improved replacement for Super VGA, but rather became one particular subset of the broad range of capabilities covered under the "Super VGA" umbrella.

The initial version of XGA (and its predecessor, the IBM 8514) expanded upon IBM's older VGA by adding support for four new screen modes (three, for the 8514), including one new resolution:[54]

Like the 8514, XGA offered fixed functionhardware acceleration to offload processing of 2D drawing tasks. Both adaptors allowed offloading of line-draw, bitmap-copy (bitblt), and color-fill operations from the host CPU. XGA's acceleration was faster than 8514's, and more comprehensive, supporting more drawing primitives, the VGA-res hi-color mode, versatile "brush" and "mask" modes, system memory addressing functions, and a single simple hardware sprite typically used to providing a low CPU load mouse pointer. It was also capable of wholly independent function, as it incorporated support for all existing VGA functions and modes – the 8514 itself was a simpler add-on adaptor that required a separate VGA to be present. It should be noted that, as they were designed for use with IBM's own range of fixed-frequency monitors, neither adaptor offered support for 800×600 SVGA modes.

XGA-2 added a 24-bit DAC, but this was used only to extend the available master palette in 256-color mode, e.g. to allow true 256-greyscale output instead of the 64 grey levels previously available; there was still no direct Truecolor mode despite the adaptor featuring enough default onboard VRAM (1 MB) to support it. Other improvements included provision of the previously missing 800×600 resolution (using an SVGA or multisync monitor) in up to 65,536 colors, faster screen refresh rates in all modes (including non-interlace, flicker-free output for 1024×768), and improved accelerator performance and versatility.

IBM licensed the XGA technology and architecture to certain third party hardware developers, and its characteristic modes (although not necessarily the accelerator functions, nor the MCA data-bus interface) were aped by many others. These accelerators typically did not suffer from the same limitations on available resolutions and refresh rate, and featured other now-standard modes like 800×600 (and 1280×1024) at various color depths (up to 24 bpp Truecolor) and interlaced, non-interlaced and flicker-free refresh rates even before the release of the XGA-2.

All standard XGA modes have a 4:3aspect ratio with square pixels, although this does not hold for certain standard VGA and third-party extended modes (640×400, 1280×1024).

XGA should not be confused with EVGA (Extended Video Graphics Array), a contemporaneous VESA standard that also has 1024×768 pixels. It should also not be confused with the ExpandedGraphics Adapter, a peripheral for the IBM 3270 PC which can also be referred to as XGA.[56]

Wide Extended Graphics Array (Wide XGA or WXGA) is a set of non standard resolutions derived from the XGAdisplay standard by widening it to a wide screenaspect ratio. WXGA is commonly used for low-end LCD TVs and LCD computer monitors for widescreen presentation. The exact resolution offered by a device described as "WXGA" can be somewhat variable owing to a proliferation of several closely related timings optimised for different uses and derived from different bases.

When referring to televisions and other monitors intended for consumer entertainment use, WXGA is generally understood to refer to a resolution of 1366×768,[57] with an aspect ratio of very nearly 16:9. The basis for this otherwise odd seeming resolution is similar to that of other "wide" standards – the line scan (refresh) rate of the well-established "XGA" standard (1024×768 pixels, 4:3 aspect) extended to give square pixels on the increasingly popular 16:9 widescreen display ratio without having to effect major signalling changes other than a faster pixel clock, or manufacturing changes other than extending panel width by one third. As 768 does not divide exactly into 9, the aspect ratio is not quite 16:9 – this would require a horizontal width of 1365.33 pixels. However, at only 0.05%, the resulting error is insignificant.

In 2006, 1366×768 was the most popular resolution for liquid crystal display televisions (versus XGA for Plasma TVs flat panel displays);[58] by 2013, even this was relegated to only being used in smaller or cheaper displays (e.g. "bedroom" LCD TVs, or low-cost, large-format plasmas), cheaper laptop and mobile tablet computers, and midrange home cinema projectors, having otherwise been overtaken by higher "full HD" resolutions such as 1920×1080.

A common variant on this resolution is 1360×768, which confers several technical benefits, most significantly a reduction in memory requirements from just over to just under 1 MB per 8-bit channel (1366×768 needs 1024.5 KB per channel; 1360×768 needs 1020 KB; 1 MB is equal to 1024 KB), which simplifies architecture and can significantly reduce the amount – and speed – of VRAM required with only a very minor change in available resolution, as memory chips are usually only available in fixed megabyte capacities. For example, at 32-bit color, a 1360×768 framebuffer would require only 4 MB, whilst a 1366×768 one may need 5, 6 or even 8 MB depending on the exact display circuitry architecture and available chip capacities. The 6-pixel reduction also means each line's width is divisible by 8 pixels, simplifying numerous routines used in both computer and broadcast/theatrical video processing, which operate on 8-pixel blocks. Historically, many video cards also mandated screen widths divisible by 8 for their lower-color, planar modes to accelerate memory accesses and simplify pixel position calculations (e.g. fetching 4-bit pixels from 32-bit memory is much faster when performed 8 pixels at a time, and calculating exactly where a particular pixel is within a memory block is much easier when lines do not end partway through a memory word), and this convention still persisted in low-end hardware even into the early days of widescreen, LCD HDTVs; thus, most 1366-width displays also quietly support display of 1360-width material, with a thin border of unused pixel columns at each side. This narrower mode is of course even further removed from the 16:9 ideal, but the error is still less than 0.5% (technically, the mode is either 15.94:9.00 or 16.00:9.04) and should be imperceptible.

When referring to laptop displays or independent displays and projectors intended primarily for use with computers, WXGA is also used to describe a resolution of 1280×800 pixels, with an aspect ratio of 16:10.[59][60][61] This was once particularly popular for laptop screens, usually with a diagonal screen size of between 12 and 15 inches, as it provided a useful compromise between 4:3 XGA and 16:9 WXGA, with improved resolution in both dimensions vs. the old standard (especially useful in portrait mode, or for displaying two standard pages of text side-by-side), a perceptibly "wider" appearance and the ability to display 720p HD video "native" with only very thin letterbox borders (usable for on-screen playback controls) and no stretching. Additionally, like 1360×768, it required only 1000 KB (just under 1 MB) of memory per 8-bit channel; thus, a typical double-buffered 32-bit colour screen could fit within 8 MB, limiting everyday demands on the complexity (and cost, energy use) of integrated graphics chipsets and their shared use of typically sparse system memory (generally allocated to the video system in relatively large blocks), at least when only the internal display was in use (external monitors generally being supported in "extended desktop" mode to at least 1600×1200 resolution). 16:10 (or 8:5) is itself a rather "classic" computer aspect ratio, harking back all the way to early 320×200 modes (and their derivatives) as seen in the Commodore 64, IBM CGA card and others. However, as of mid 2013, this standard is becoming increasingly rare, crowded out by the more standardised and thus more economical-to-produce 1366×768 panels, as its previously beneficial features become less important with improvements to hardware, gradual loss of general backwards software compatibility, and changes in interface layout. As of August 2013, the market availability of panels with 1280×800 native resolution had been generally relegated to data projectors or niche products such as convertible tablet PCs and LCD-based eBook readers.[original research?]

First, the HDTV-standard 1280×720[62] (otherwise commonly described as "720p"), which offers an exact 16:9 aspect with square pixels; naturally, it displays standard 720p HD video material without stretching or letterboxing and 1080i/1080p with a simple 2:3 downscale. This resolution has found some use in tablets and modern, high-pixel-density mobile phones, as well as small-format "netbook" or "ultralight" (not "Ultrabook") laptop computers. However, its use is uncommon in larger, mainstream devices as it has insufficient vertical resolution for the proper use of modern operating systems such as Windows 7 whose UI design assumes a minimum of 768 lines. For certain uses such as word processing, it can even be considered a slight downgrade (reducing number of simultaneously visible lines of text without granting any significant benefit as even 640 pixels is sufficient horizontal resolution to legibly render a full page width, especially with the addition of subpixel anti-aliasing).

The second variant, 1280×768, can be seen as a compromise resolution that addressed this problem, as well as a halfway house between the older 1024×768 and 1280×1024 resolutions, and a stepping stone to 1366×768 (being one-quarter wider than 1024, not one-third) and 1280×800, that never quite caught on in the same way as either of its arguably derivative successors. Its square-pixel aspect ratio is 15:9, in contrast to HDTV's 16:9 and 1280×800's 16:10. It is also the lowest resolution that might be found in an "Ultrabook" standard laptop, as it satisfies the minimum horizontal and vertical pixel resolutions required to officially qualify for the designation.

Another mentionable resolutions are 1152×768 with 3:2 aspect ratio, and 1344×768 with 7:4 aspect ratio (similar to 16:9).

Recent widespread availability of 1280×800 and 1366×768 pixel resolution LCDs for laptop monitors can be considered an OS-driven evolution from the formerly popular 1024×768 screen size, which has itself since seen UI design feedback in response to what could be considered disadvantages of the widescreen format when used with programs designed for "traditional" screens. In Microsoft Windowsoperating system specifically, the larger task bar of Windows Vista and 7 occupies an additional 16 pixel lines by default, which may compromise the usability of programs that already demanded a full 1024×768 (instead of, e.g. 800×600) unless it is specifically set to use small icons; an "oddball" 784-line resolution would compensate for this, but 1280×800 has a simpler aspect and also gives the slight bonus of 16 more usable lines. Also, the Windows Sidebar in Windows Vista and 7 can use the additional 256 or 336 horizontal pixels to display informational "widgets" without compromising the display width of other programs, and Windows 8 is specifically designed around a "two pane" concept where the full 16:9 or 16:10 screen is not required. Typically, this consists of a 4:3 main program area (typically 1024×768, 1000×800 or 1440×1080) plus a narrow sidebar running a second program, showing a toolbox for the main program or a pop-out OS shortcut panel taking up the remainder.

Some 1440×900 resolution displays have also been found labeled as WXGA; however, the correct label is actually WSXGA or WXGA+.

XGA+ stands for Extended Graphics Array Plus and is a computer display standard, usually understood to refer to the 1152×864 resolution with an aspect ratio of 4:3. Until the advent of widescreen LCDs, XGA+ was often used on 17-inch desktop CRT monitors. It is the highest 4:3 resolution not greater than 220 pixels (~1.05 megapixels), with its horizontal dimension a multiple of 32 pixels. This enables it to fit closely into a video memory or framebuffer of 1 MB (1 × 220bytes), assuming the use of one byte per pixel. The common multiple of 32 pixels constraint is related to alignment.

Historically, the resolution also relates to the earlier standard of 1152×900 pixels, which was adopted by Sun Microsystems for the Sun-2workstation in the early 1980s. A decade later, Apple Computer selected the resolution of 1152x870 for their 21-inch CRT monitors, intended for use as two-page displays on the Macintosh II computer. These resolutions are even closer to the limit of a 1 MB framebuffer, but their aspect ratios differ slightly from the common 4:3.

XGA+ is the next step after XGA (1024×768), although it is not approved by any standard organizations. The next step with an aspect ratio of 4:3 is 1280×960 ("SXGA-") or SXGA+ (1400×1050).

WXGA+ and WSXGA are non-standard terms referring to computer display resolutions. Usually they refer to a resolution of 1440×900,[citation needed] but occasionally manufacturers use other terms to refer to this resolution.[63] The Standard Panels Working Group refers to the 1440×900 resolution as WXGA(II).[64]

WSXGA and WXGA+ can be considered enhanced versions of WXGA with more pixels, or as widescreen variants of SXGA. The aspect ratios of each are 16:10 (widescreen).

WXGA+ (1440×900) resolution is common in 19 in widescreen desktop monitors (a very small number of such monitors use WSXGA+), and is also optional, although less common, in laptop LCDs, in sizes ranging from 12.1 in to 17 in. It is also used in the 13 inch MacBook Air.[65] With a 13.3 in screen this is 128 ppi.

SXGA is an abbreviation for Super Extended Graphics Array referring to a standard monitor resolution of 1280×1024 pixels. This display resolution is the "next step" above the XGA resolution that IBM developed in 1990.

The 1280×1024 resolution is not the standard 4:3 aspect ratio, but 5:4 (1.25:1 instead of 1.333:1). A standard 4:3 monitor using this resolution will have rectangular rather than square pixels, meaning that unless the software compensates for this the picture will be distorted, causing circles to appear elliptical.

There is a less common 1280×960 resolution that preserves the common 4:3 aspect ratio. It is sometimes unofficially called SXGA− to avoid confusion with the "standard" SXGA. Elsewhere this 4:3 resolution was also called UVGA (Ultra VGA): Since both sides are doubled from VGA the term Quad VGA would be a systematic one, but it is hardly ever used, because its initialism QVGA is strongly associated with the alternate meaning Quarter VGA (320×240).

SXGA is the most common native resolution of 17 in and 19 in LCD monitors. An LCD monitor with SXGA native resolution will typically have a physical 5:4 aspect ratio, preserving a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio.

Sony manufactured a 17 in CRT monitor with a 5:4 aspect ratio designed for this resolution. It was sold under the Apple brand name.[citation needed]

SXGA is also a popular resolution for cell phone cameras, such as the Motorola Razr and most Samsung and LG phones. Although being taken over by newer UXGA (2.0-megapixel) cameras, the 1.3-megapixel was the most common around 2007.[citation needed]

Any CRT that can run 1280×1024 can also run 1280×960, which has the standard 4:3 ratio. A flat panel TFT screen, including one designed for 1280×1024, will show stretching distortion when set to display any resolution other than its native one, as the image needs to be interpolated to fit in the fixed grid display. Some TFT displays do not allow a user to disable this, and will prevent the upper and lower portions of the screen from being used forcing a "letterbox" format when set to a 4:3 ratio.[citation needed]

The 1280×1024 resolution became popular because at 24-bit color it fit well into 4 megabytes of video RAM.[citation needed] At the time, memory was extremely expensive. Using 1280×1024 at 24-bit color depth allowed using 3.75 MB of video RAM, fitting nicely with VRAM chip sizes which were available at the time (4 MB).

SXGA+ stands for Super Extended Graphics Array Plus and is a computer display standard. An SXGA+ display is commonly used on 14-inch or 15-inch laptopLCD screens with a resolution of 1400×1050 pixels. An SXGA+ display is used on a few 12-inch laptop screens such as the ThinkPad X60 and X61 (both only as tablet) as well as the Toshiba Portégé M200 and M400, but those are far less common. At 14.1 inches, Dell offered SXGA+ on many of the Dell Latitude "C" series laptops, such as the C640 and the C810, and Lenovo on the ThinkPad T61 and T61p. Sony also used SXGA+ in their Z1 series, but no longer produce them as widescreen has become more predominant.

There is a widescreen version of SXGA+ called WSXGA+ with a resolution of 1680×1050. This is a common native resolution of 19–22-inch wide-aspect LCD monitors, and is also available on many laptops.

It is the next common step in resolution after SXGA, although it is not approved by any organization. The most common resolution immediately above is called UXGA (sometimes also known as UGA), which has 1600×1200 pixels.

In desktop LCDs, SXGA+ is used on some low-end 20-inch monitors, whereas most of the 20-inch LCDs use UXGA (standard screen ratio), or WSXGA+ (widescreen ratio).

WSXGA+ stands for Widescreen Super Extended Graphics Array Plus and is a computer display standard. A WSXGA+ display is commonly used on Widescreen 20 in, 21 in, and popular 22 in LCD monitors from numerous manufacturers (and a very small number of 19 in widescreen monitors), as well as widescreen 15.4 in and 17 in laptopLCD screens like the Thinkpad T61 and the Apple 15 in MacBook Pro. The resolution is 1680×1050 pixels (1,764,000 pixels) and has a 16:10aspect ratio.

WSXGA+ is the widescreen version of SXGA+, but it is not approved by any organization. The next highest resolution (for widescreen) after it is WUXGA, which is 1920×1200 pixels.

UXGA or UGA is an abbreviation for Ultra Extended Graphics Array referring to a standard monitorresolution of 1600×1200 pixels (totaling 1,920,000 pixels), which is exactly four times the default resolution of SVGA (800×600) (totaling 480,000 pixels). Dell Inc. refers to the same resolution of 1,920,000 pixels as UGA. It is generally considered to be the next step above SXGA (1280×960 or 1280×1024), but some resolutions (such as the unnamed 1366×1024 and SXGA+ at 1400×1050) fit between the two.

UXGA has been the native resolution of many fullscreen monitors of 15 in or more, including laptop LCDs such as the ones in ThinkPad A21p, A30p, A31p, T42p, T43p and T60p; Dell Inspiron 8000/8100/8200; Panasonic Toughbook CF-51; and the original Alienware Area 51m. However, in more recent times, UXGA is not used in laptops at all but rather in desktop UXGA monitors that have been made in sizes of 20 in and 21.3 in. Some 14 in laptop LCDs with UXGA have also existed, but these were very rare.

There are two different widescreen cousins of UXGA, one called UWXGA with 1600×768 (750) and one called WUXGA with 1920×1200 resolution.

WUXGA stands for Widescreen Ultra Extended Graphics Array and is a display resolution of 1920×1200 pixels (2,304,000 pixels) with a 16:10 screen aspect ratio. It is a wide version of UXGA, and can be used for viewing high-definition television (HDTV) content, which uses a 16:9 aspect ratio and a 1280×720 (720p) or 1920×1080 (1080i or 1080p) resolution.

The 16:10 aspect ratio (as opposed to the 16:9 used in widescreen televisions) was chosen because this aspect ratio is appropriate for displaying two full pages of text side by side.[66]

WUXGA resolution is 2.304 megapixels. An uncompressed 8-bit RGB WUXGA image has a size of ~6.6 MB (6750 × 210 bytes). As of 2014, this resolution is available in a few high-end LCDtelevisions and computer monitors (e.g. Dell Ultrasharp U2413, Lenovo L220x, Samsung T220P, ViewSonic SD-Z225, Asus PA248Q), although in the past it was used in a wider variety of displays, including 17 in laptops. WUXGA use predates the introduction of LCDs of that resolution. Most QXGA displays support 1920×1200 and widescreen CRTs such as the Sony GDM-FW900 and Hewlett Packard A7217A do as well. WUXGA is also available in some of the more high end mobile phablet devices such as the Huawei Honor X2 Gem.

The next lower resolution (for widescreen) before it is WSXGA+, which is 1680×1050 pixels (1,764,000 pixels, or 30.61% fewer than the WUXGA); the next higher resolution widescreen is an unnamed 2304×1440 resolution (supported by the above GDM-FW900 and A7217A) and then the more common WQXGA, which has 2560×1600 pixels (4,096,000 pixels, or 77.78% more than WUXGA).

There are two wider formats called UWXGA 1600×768 (25:12) and UW-UXGA that has 2560×1080 pixels, a 2.37:1 or 21⅓:9 or 64:27 aspect ratio, sometimes erroneously labeled 21:9.

The QXGA, or Quad Extended Graphics Array, display standard is a resolution standard in display technology. Some examples of LCD monitors that have pixel counts at these levels are the Dell 3008WFP, the Apple Cinema Display, the Apple iMac (27 inch 2009–present), the iPad (3rd generation), and the MacBook Pro (3rd generation). Many standard 21–22 in CRT monitors and some of the highest-end 19 in CRTs also support this resolution.

QWXGA (Quad Wide Extended Graphics Array) is a display resolution of 2048×1152 pixels with a 16:9aspect ratio. A few LCD QWXGA monitors were available in 2009 with 23- and 27-inch displays, such as the Acer B233HU (23-inch) and B273HU (27-inch), the Dell SP2309W, and the Samsung 2343BWX. As of 2011, most 2048×1152 monitors have been discontinued, and as of 2013 no major manufacturer produces monitors with this resolution.

QXGA (Quad Extended Graphics Array) is a display resolution of 2048×1536 pixels with a 4:3aspect ratio. The name comes from it having four times as many pixels as an XGA display. Examples of LCDs with this resolution are the IBM T210 and the Eizo G33 and R31 screens, but in CRT monitors this resolution is much more common; some examples include the Sony F520, ViewSonic G225fB, NEC FP2141SB or Mitsubishi DP2070SB, Iiyama Vision Master Pro 514, and Dell and HP P1230. Of these monitors, none are still in production. A related display size is WQXGA, which is a wide screen version. CRTs offer a way to achieve QXGA cheaply. Models like the Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2045U and IBM ThinkVision C220P retailed for around 200 USD, and even higher performance ones like the ViewSonic PerfectFlat P220fB remained under 500 USD. At one time, many off-lease P1230s could be found on eBay for under 150 USD. The LCDs with WQXGA or QXGA resolution typically cost 4 to 5 times more for the same resolution. IDTech manufactured a 15 in QXGA IPS panel, used in some high-end IBM ThinkPad models. NEC sold laptops with QXGA screens in 2002–05 for the Japanese market.[67][68] The iPad (starting from 3rd generation) also has a QXGA display.[69]

WQXGA (Wide Quad Extended Graphics Array) is a display resolution of 2560×1600 pixels with a 16:10aspect ratio. The name comes from it being a wide version of QXGA and having four times as many pixels as an WXGA (1280×800) display.

To obtain a vertical refresh rate higher than 40 Hz, this resolution requires more bandwidth than a single link DVI supports and requires dual-link capable cables and devices. To avoid cable problems monitors are sometimes shipped with an appropriate dual link cable already plugged in. Many video cards support this resolution. One feature that is currently unique to the 30 inch WQXGA monitors is the ability to function as the centerpiece and main display of a three-monitor array of complementary aspect ratios, with two UXGA (1600×1200) 20 in monitors turned vertically on either side. The resolutions are equal, and the size of the 1600 resolution edges (if the manufacturer is honest) is within a tenth of an inch (16 in vs. 15.89999"), presenting a "picture window view" without the extreme lateral dimensions, small central panel, asymmetry, resolution differences, or dimensional difference of other three-monitor combinations. The resulting 4960×1600 composite image has a 3.1:1 aspect ratio. This also means one UXGA 20 in monitor in portrait orientation can also be flanked by two 30 inch WQXGA monitors for a 6320×1600 composite image with an 11.85:3 (79:20, 3.95:1) aspect ratio. Some WQXGA medical displays (such as the Barco Coronis 4MP) can also be configured as two virtual 1200×1600 or 1280×1600 seamless displays by using both DVI ports at the same time.

An early consumer WQXGA monitor was the 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, unveiled by Apple in June 2004. At the time, Dual-link DVI was uncommon on consumer hardware, so Apple partnered with Nvidia to develop a special graphics card that had two Dual-link DVI ports, allowing simultaneous use of two 30 inch Apple Cinema Displays. The nature of this graphics card, being an add-in AGP card, meant that the monitors could only be used in a desktop computer, like the Power Mac G5, that could have the add-in card installed, and could not be immediately used with laptop computers that lacked this expansion capability.

In 2010, WQXGA made its debut in a handful of home theater projectors targeted at the Constant Height Screen application market. Both Digital Projection Inc and projectiondesign released models based on a Texas Instruments DLP chip with a native WQXGA resolution, alleviating the need for an anamorphic lens to achieve 1:2.35 image projection. Many manufacturers have 27–30 inch models that are capable of WQXGA, albeit at a much higher price than lower resolution monitors of the same size. Several mainstream WQXGA monitors are available with 30-inch displays, such as the Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC, Dell UltraSharp 3008WFP, U3011 and 3014, the Hewlett-Packard LP3065, the Gateway XHD3000, LG W3000H, and the Samsung 305T. Specialist manufacturers like Eizo, Planar Systems, Barco (LC-3001), and possibly others offer similar models.

Released in November 2012, Google's Nexus 10 is the first consumer tablet to feature WQXGA resolution. Before its release, the highest resolution available on a tablet was QXGA (2048×1536), available on the Apple iPad 3rd and 4th generations devices. Several Samsung Galaxy tablets, including the Note 10.1 (2014 Edition), Tab S 8.4, 10.5 and TabPRO 8.4, 10.1 and 12.2, as well as the Gigaset QV1030, also feature a WQXGA resolution display.

In 2012 Apple released the 13 inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display that features a WQXGA display.

Recent medical displays such as Barco Coronis Fusion 10MP or NDS Dome S10 have native panel resolution of 4096×2560. These are driven by two dual-link DVI or DisplayPort outputs. They can be considered to be two seamless virtual QSXGA displays as they have to be driven simultaneously by both dual link DVI or DisplayPort since one dual link DVI or DisplayPort cannot single-handedly display 10 megapixels. A similar resolution of 2560×1920 (4:3) was supported by a small number of CRT displays via VGA such as the Viewsonic P225f when paired with the right graphics card.

WQUXGA (Wide Quad Ultra Extended Graphics Array) describes a display standard that supports a resolution of 3840×2400 pixels, which provides a 16:10 aspect ratio. This resolution is exactly four times 1920×1200 (in pixels).

WQUXGA is the maximum resolution supported by DisplayPort 1.2, though actually displaying such a resolution on a device with DisplayPort 1.2 is dependent on the graphics system in much the same way devices with VGA connectors do not necessarily maximize that standard's highest possible resolution. Most display cards with a DVI connector are capable of supporting the 3840×2400 resolution. However, the maximum refresh rate will be limited by the number of DVI links which are connected to the monitor. 1, 2, or 4 DVI connectors are used to drive the monitor using various tile configurations. Only the IBM T221-DG5 and IDTech MD22292B5 support the use of dual-link DVI ports through an external converter box. Many systems using these monitors use at least two DVI connectors to send video to the monitor. These DVI connectors can be from the same graphics card, different graphics cards, or even different computers. Motion across the tile boundary(ies) can show tearing if the DVI links are not synchronized. The display panel can be updated at a speed between 0 Hz and 41 Hz (48 Hz for the IBM T221-DG5, -DGP, and IDTech MD22292B5). The refresh rate of the video signal can be higher than 41 Hz (or 48 Hz) but the monitor will not update the display any faster even if graphics card(s) do so.

In June 2001, WQUXGA was introduced in the IBM T220 LCD monitor using a LCD panel built by IDTech. LCD displays that support WQUXGA resolution include: IBM T220, IBM T221, Iiyama AQU5611DTBK, ViewSonicVP2290,[70] ADTX MD22292B, and IDTech MD22292 (models B0, B1, B2, B5, C0, C2). IDTech was the original equipment manufacturer which sold these monitors to ADTX, IBM, Iiyama, and ViewSonic.[71] However, none of the WQUXGA monitors (IBM, ViewSonic, Iiyama, ADTX) are in production anymore: they had prices that were well above even the higher end displays used by graphic professionals, and the lower refresh rates, 41 Hz and 48 Hz, made them less attractive for many applications.

HXGA, an abbreviation for Hexadecatuple Extended Graphics Array is a display standard that can support a resolution of 4096×3072 pixels (or 3200 pixels) with a 4:3 aspect ratio. The name comes from it having sixteen (hexadecatuple) times as many pixels as an XGA display.

WHXGA an abbreviation for Wide Hexadecatuple Extended Graphics Array is a display standard that can support a resolution of roughly 5120×3200 pixels with a 16:10 aspect ratio. The name comes from it being a wide version of HXGA, which has sixteen (hexadecatuple) times as many pixels as an XGA display.

HSXGA, an abbreviation for Hexadecatuple Super Extended Graphics Array, is a display standard that can support a resolution of roughly 5120×4096 pixels with a 5:4 aspect ratio. The name comes from it having sixteen (hexadecatuple) times as many pixels as an SXGA display.

WHSXGA, an abbreviation for Wide Hexadecatuple Super Extended Graphics Array, is a display standard that can support a resolution up to 6400×4096 pixels, assuming a 1.56:1 (25:16) aspect ratio. The name comes from it having sixteen (hexadecatuple) times as many pixels as an WSXGA display.

HUXGA, an abbreviation for Hexadecatuple Ultra Extended Graphics Array, is a display standard that can support a resolution of roughly 6400×4800 pixels with a 4:3 aspect ratio. The name comes from it having sixteen (hexadecatuple) times as many pixels as an UXGA display.

WHUXGA, an abbreviation for Wide Hexadecatuple Ultra Extended Graphics Array, is a display standard that can support a resolution up to 7680×4800 pixels, assuming a 16:10 (8:5) aspect ratio. The name comes from it having sixteen (hexadecatuple) times as many pixels as a WUXGA display.